My first trek!

After the round of skiing, we were quite tired; but the hope that we would manage a trek in the hills was well alive. Our ski guides suggested the 3 hour to-and-from climb to the Temple of Baba Prakashgiri of gurgaon( hey!! That sounds familiar) . The temple was on the snow clad hill that was just adjacent to the ski slope. Very few people dared to go there as the snow there could be as high as 5-6 feet above the ground. Even those who dared, did go on the ponies. But we were determined to make a day out of this one. We were told that the trek was well laid out by footmarks in snow. so we set out at around 3.00 PM with an aim to bow head to the baba, whatever happened.

Your truly was the fittest and as usual, wasted no time in getting ahead of the pack. We didn't have much in lunch so the idea of eating some snow was fun!! I kept nibbling at snow that I picked up from the pristine pathways :) Till the first 10 minutes CV was along with me, but then he fell behind as I dared to walk along the side of the track in 2 feet deep snow that often forayed into my gum boots leaving the tingling sensation that always kept on increasing. I was told by the returning devotees that the temple is way too far and it is unreachable on foot but I somehow trusted my ski guides more and went on. Snow on such high reaches is like a desert, all directions look the same and you dare not enter into uncharted territory or else you will sink into the "snow marsh" the ice cold river flowing beneath the white fur. I kept increasing my separation with the other 4 till the time I could see the red temple flags.

As I reached the home straight, the killing silence of the hills almost had me. The temple was a small dark room beneath a glacier and had two entrances - one a low door and the the resembled a cave. A shiver ran down my spine as I approached the cave - I could see a monstrous head from a distance. "Ho gaya bhaiya Ram Nam Satya" was my reaction as I recalled the hotelier's warning about encounters with wild bears. I could have some breath when the beast stepped up the cave, it was no more than a dog! But who says that dogs don't bite!! In the mass of snow all around , the beast could have torn me to pieces in shear absence of a saviour. So I held on until support arrived in the form of the remaining 4, AB came in first. the two of went inside, sat for 10 minutes , had the tasty "prasad" ( the incorrigible yogi inside me tried padmasana and dhyan there too ).

This view is atop the glacier, just at the side of the cave!


Descent was more dramatic. We soon split into two groups with me and CV leading the pack and AB, NR and AS following suit. and with a coincidence that could only be explained by the fact that all of us spent the prime years or our lives in the jungle called kgp, the idea of a snowman struck to us.

Here is our masterpiece :)




The group of three was more imaginative as they soon upgraded to a snow-woman!!! I only saw the image but their masterpiece looked no less than a "hoor" from heaven. Ours was a more staid snowman with arms made out of coke bottles and eyes of the bottle caps. The two creations were faithfully captured into the camera. By the time we came down, our feet were frozen in the boots and none of us had the wisdom of carrying an extra pair of socks anyway. So, getting out of boots and then socks was a great relief.towards the end, I and CV tried another adventure - free slide along the slope - at the end of that, I managed to carry a lump of snow inside my vest , ain't it skillful ??:P

when we returned, the first room of the hotel was soon buzzing with the idiot box. There was one great thing about the "dabba", every time it was put own, it blared a message " watching TV is the primary cause of stupidity" or something like that. How unique, how true and how contradictory :ha ha ha. Channel surfing upwards and downwards was rampant as we eased under the warmth of the soft quilts, a full two hour rest was desired four our hectic day.